As a novice what is the most important piece of guidance you can give me regarding purchase conveyancing in New Forest?

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in New Forest or throughout Hampshire is an adversarial experience. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there is an abundance of opportunity for confrontation between you and other parties involved in the legal transfer of property. For example, the vendor, property agent and sometimes the mortgage company. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in New Forest is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE person in the transaction whose role it is to protect your legal interests and to keep you safe.

On occasion a potential adversary will attempt to convince you that it is in your interests to do things their way. For example, the selling agent may claim to be helping by claiming that your lawyer is slow. Or your mortgage broker may tell you to do something that is against your solicitors guidance. You should always trust your lawyer above all other parties when it comes to the legal transfer of property.

I'm purchasing a new build house in New Forest benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to move on the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent told me not disclose to my lawyer about the side-deal as it will put at risk my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in two weeks back in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. New Forest is the location of the property. Is there any advice you can give?

Flying freeholds in New Forest are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside New Forest you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in New Forest may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.

I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in New Forest. Before diving in I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in New Forest - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I own a leasehold flat in New Forest, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in New Forest with over 90 years remaining are worth £197,000. The ground rent is £55 per annum. The lease finishes on 21st October 2079

With 54 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to range between £32,300 and £37,400 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

My son is about to join the property ladder, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. After the seller agreed the offer on the house we called the mortgage institution to progress the mortgage application. We were disappointed to hear that mortgage companies do not accept all conveyancer, they have to be on a list, is this legal?

Mortgage Companies tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing solicitors on their approved list of lawyers. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any New Forest lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Presumably not.